How to Install and Configure vsftpd on CentOS 6.8 (VMware) for Windows 10 Access

1. Verify whether the vsftpd package is installed

Run the following command to check for the vsftpd package: rpm -qa | grep vsftpd If the command returns nothing, the package is not installed.

2. Install vsftpd

Install the FTP server using yum (or an RPM if yum is not configured): yum -y install vsftpd After installation, confirm it succeeded with the same rpm -qa command.

3. Start the service and enable it at boot

Start the vsftpd service: service vsftpd start Configure the service to start automatically on runlevels 3 and 5: chkconfig --level 35 vsftpd on Verify the run‑level configuration:

chkconfig --list vsftpd

4. Configure vsftpd

The main configuration files are located in /etc/vsftpd/: ftpusers – lists users that are denied FTP access. user_list – controls which users may log in, depending on userlist_enable and userlist_deny settings in vsftpd.conf. vsftpd.conf – primary server configuration file.

4.1 Enable anonymous upload and directory creation

Edit /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf and set the following options to YES (remove the leading ‘#’ if present):

anon_upload_enable=YES
anon_mkdir_write_enable=YES

This allows anonymous users to upload files and create directories.

4.2 Configure non‑anonymous (local) users

First, disable anonymous uploads: anon_upload_enable=NO Then, at the end of vsftpd.conf, add:

userlist_enable=YES
userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.user_list
userlist_deny=NO

This enables a whitelist of users who are allowed to log in.

4.3 Create a user for FTP access

Add a system user (e.g., ftp1) and place the username in /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.user_list: vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.user_list Insert a line with ftp1, save, and exit.

Reload the service to apply changes:

service vsftpd reload

5. Test the configuration

Attempt to log in with the newly created user ( ftp1). After adding the user to the whitelist and reloading the service, the login should succeed.

With these steps, the vsftpd server is fully operational, supporting both anonymous and authenticated FTP access from a Windows 10 client.